Dialogue for the protection of bees

On 11 October 2018 in Belgrade, a workshop for developing the Action plan of the Theme group for the protection of bees was organized within the Public Private Dialogue Project. Through dialogue between the public and private sector representatives, the future steps have been defined as a path towards resolving the problem of bee poisoning, which not only stands as a problem for beekeepers and farmers, but affects the interests of the overall society.

"Due to insufficient awareness about the bees being endangered and the importance of their preservation, the inadequate regulations or their implementation, the beekeeping in Serbia faces a series of challenges that require fast resolution,” said Rodoljub Živadinović, President of Serbian Beekeepers Association SPOS. “Bee poisoning most commonly occurs due to improper and negligent use of pesticides by farmers, as well as the illegal trade and distribution of these chemicals. This problem is further aggravated with insufficient number of inspectors, so bee poisoning occurs relatively often while being hard to prove such cases. Bee poisoning also occurs due to mosquito misting from the air or ground with chemicals that are poisonous for bees, so there is a need to align our regulations with the European, which have forbidden the air misting since 2011, due to the harmful effects of this method on people’s health and the environment" – explained Živadinović.

The workshop concluded that the key steps for resolving the problem include better education of farmers about the dangers of using pesticides, strengthening the staff capacities of inspections in terms of the number of inspectors and their training, stricter sanctions for treating plants in a manner that opposes the regulations and causes harm to bees, harmonization of local legislation with the EU regulations regarding the prohibition of mosquito misting from the air and the application of these provisions, or the introduction of mosquito control manners that do nt pose as threat to the bees.

The members of Theme working group for bee protection are the representatives of Serbian Beekeeping Association, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Ministry of Environment Protection, Ministry of Health, National Public Policy Secretariat, Municipality of Rača and NALED.

 

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